Whoa. That's a bit creepy.

The craziest thing happened when I uploaded my Garmin data from Wednesday night's workout:  I had posted the exact same (down to the second) time from my 8 miles on Wednesday and my 7 miles on Tuesday.  Like whoa....right?  I'm not sure I could ever in a million years do that by trying.

I took Monday off to give the legs some downtime, but I was itching for a run.  I expected the legs to be trashed after running some hills, but they were raring to go.  Tuesday morning I hit the bike path for an easy 7 miles.  After reviewing my revised training program, I was only supposed to do 4.  Uh.... oops.  I ended up doing 7 miles in 1:09:07. 

Wednesday after work I had an 8 mile run with 7 miles at a tempo pace of 8:23.  For some crazy reason (perhaps because I was able to average an 8:25 pace for 10 miles on some crazy hills) this pace didn't freak me out.  Dare I say it.... I was actually excited for a tempo run.  --gasp!--  But first I had to eat half a box of fruit snacks.  No joke.  I couldn't stop.  And then I had a tummy ache.  And then I had to convince myself I could run a killer tempo run.

I did an easy warm up mile and then got to work.  I was surprised at how great I felt for the first few miles.  Like really good.  Hmmm...  At the 4 mile turn around I snatched some water and jumped on the heels of some dude (obviously a wrestler, don't ask how I knew, you could just tell, ya know?).  He did not like the fact that a chicky was keeping up with him.  He would speed up, then slow down, repeat x 10.  I finally passed him, only to have him sprint past me 1/2 a mile later.  I assumed he was finishing up his run.  Nope.  Slowed down and then stayed in front of me.  Oh well.  It helped to pace me on my run I guess.  :)  Plus he quit a mile and a quarter before me, so I obviously won.  It was dark during the last 2.5 miles, so I wasn't able to see my pace on my Garmin.  I also wasn't able to tell what my mile times were, so I couldn't guage if I needed to speed up or slow down.  The good news is, at no point in the run did I want to die and/or give up.  Yay me.

1. 9:54 
2. 8:24 
3. 8:17 
4. 8:25 
5. 8:28 
6. 8:24 
7. 8:16 
8. 8:30

Magically for me my average pace ended up being 8:23 on the nose.  Heck yes.  Jerbear: 1  Tempo Run:  1200 0 this time around.

September in Review

Total Miles: 86.1 down from 115.9 last month. (Last September 101.4)

Total Time: 13:18:55 down from 18:22:53. (15:42:37 last Sept).

Total Runs: 13 for an average of 6.62/run

Highest weekly mileage: 9/6--9/12: 30.6 miles

Favorite run: It was only a one miler, but I had been 1 mile shy of 1000 for the year after having knee issues for most of September.  I was a smily cat when my knee was ok with me jogging out a mile on the treadmill. :)

Most hardcore run: Well after going through my training log for September, it doesn't look like I had a very hardcore run.  I really struggled with running hard (obviously) and psyched myself before even starting some tough tempo and speed workouts.  No hardcore runs = no hardcore races.  Lesson learned.  :)

Favorite Race: It's lucky that it was my only race of the month, because there wasn't awhole lot that was "favorite" about it:  Sioux Falls Half Marathon.

Bike Miles: 89.7

Favorite Jams: Katy Perry's Teenage Dream and Rihanna's Only Girl. 

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